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THE DYCKMAN 
HOUSE 



BUILT ABOUT 178^1 

RESTORED AND PRESENTED TO 

THE CITY OF NEW YORK IN 

M C M X V I 



F 



Z2 
.37 

I]23 



Gift irom 
Mrs. Opal Logan Kunz 
Nov. 20, 1933 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I — Introduction. The Dyckman House . 9 

II — The Interest of Its Locality . . .17 

III — The Builder of the House: His Fam- 
ily 22 

IV — The House and Its Contents. • • • 33 

V — Acknowledgments 41 



THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 
PARK AND MUSEUM 



I 

INTRODUCTION 
THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

NEW YORK has little time to think of bygones. 
Its life hurries along its few long avenues and 
runs thickly in its many cross streets without 
stopping in front of houses which are old, even when 
historical. There is, perhaps, not a city in the world 
one-tenth of its size which has less average interest 
in its own past. It grows quickly, takes its popula- 
tion from everywhere, and tears down its buildings 
and rebuilds them at a furious rate. In its progress 
it spares few vestiges of olden times. For one thing, 
it cannot afford to preserve its land for "senti- 
mental reasons;" it has already too little space for 
its daily need; its mainland is an island, and rather 
than spread out broadly it is quite content to grow 
up in the air. So quickly, indeed, does the memory 
of its old buildings pass away that little would re- 
main to our knowledge of them, even of a few gener- 
ations ago, had not a few exceptional people set 
themselves at that time to picture them in their 
surroundings and to leave these records to their de- 
scendants. How different, indeed, would be our idea 
of old New York had not a member of our City 

9 



10 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

Common Council, at no little cost and ridicule, 
persuaded his fellow members to publish pictures of 
early landmarks in their annual reports! And to- 
day, as we thumb the pages of Valentine s Manual, 
how few of the buildings there shown have been 
left behind! 

For buildings in New York which visibly antedate 
the year 1800 one may long seek in vain. Even in 
the uppermost part of the island there exists hardly 
a trace of the simpler life of our people. The old 
and well-set farms which spread over Yorkville, 
Manhattanville, Bloomingdale, Carmansville and 
Harlem have passed quite out of our memory and 
their old buildings have fallen, one by one, to be re- 
placed by rows of private dwellings of brick or 
brown-stone, or tall apartments of varied colors. 
To-day there remains on Manhattan Island but one 
real eighteenth-century farmhouse. Happily, how- 
ever, for posterity, this is an excellent specimen of 
its kind (Frontispiece). It was built about 1783 
but appears of earlier date, having features which 
suggest constructions of 1 750-1 760. It has the 
added interest of having been little changed since 
it was built, it had passed out of the hands of its 
original owners less than fifty years ago, and its 
various later tenants, feeling that the building would 
sooner or later be "pulled down," made no serious 
attempt to modernize it. But when at last the 
time came to demolish it, for apartment houses were 
growing up nearby — and its last owner could not be 
expected to preserve its valuably site for reasons his- 
torical — the old house, neglected and forlorn, made 
its appeal to the sentiment of the community — 



PARK AND MUSEUM II 

should it go or should it in some way be preserved, 
to remain as the last of its kind, to leave to suc- 
ceeding generations at least a memory of their fore- 
bears and of early times? (Fig. i.) One of the first 
to make a serious effort to preserve the old house 







HI, 






-^ -^^-TT^ 



FIG. I 

DYCKMAN HOUSE. SOUTHEAST CORNER, SEEN FROM THE CORNER 

OF BROADWAY AND 204TH STREET 



was the former Park Commissioner, Hon. Charles B. 
Stover, who drew up a report explaining its interest 
and suggesting ways and means for saving it. Prior 
to this, several patriotic societies discussed the pro- 
ject hopefully; and shortly afterward the Society of 
the Daughters of the Revolution, headed by Mrs. 
Everett M. Ravnor, went so far as to raise the funds 



12 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

necessary to move the building into the neighboring 
I sham Park. Thereupon the owners of the house, 
Mr. and Mrs. John H. Judge, came forward and 
offered to present the building to the City in case a 
suitable place for it could be found. Further ex- 
amination showed, however, that the old house could 
not be placed in I sham Park — there was no adequate 
site for it there. On the other hand, a site might 
have been had on another part of the Isham Estate, 
for Mrs. Henry Osborn Taylor (who was Miss Julia 
Isham, and who had presented the Park to the City), 
had intimated, very generously, that she was inter- 
ested in the fate of the old house and would consider 
with her family ways and means of giving it a home. 
But there still remained the serious question whether 
the house could be moved without danger of destroy- 
ing it. It seemed, too, a pity to tear the old house 
from the land where it had so long stood. At this 
point two of the descendants of the original builder, 
Mrs. Bashford Dean (formerly Mary Alice Dyckman) 
and Mrs. Alexander McMillan Welch (formerly 
Fanny Fredericka Dyckman), expressed the wish to 
purchase the property, and, having restored house and 
grounds to their original condition, to present them 
to the City. This they offered to do in memory of 
their father, Isaac Michael Dyckman, who as a boy 
had lived in the house, and their mother, Fannie 
Blackwell (Brown) Dyckman, whose grandmother, 
Jemima Dyckman was married there. 1 his offer was 
formally accepted by the City (November 12, 191 5), 
at the recommendation of the present Park Com- 
missioner, Hon. Cabot Ward, and the property be- 
came known as "the Dyckman House Park and 



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14 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

Museum," for it was part of the plan of the donors 
to return to the house the old furniture and heir- 
looms of their forefathers. The contents of the 
Museum they explained, however, are not given to 
the City, but are to remain for the present as a loan. 
The work of putting the house in order was imme- 
diately begun. Mr. Welch undertook the restora- 
tion of the house and grounds, and Mr. Dean planned 
the arrangement of the Museum. Happily, the 
changes which had befallen the original house were 
known; early pictures of it exist, one of them as 
early as 1835 (Fig. 2), and Mr. Welch, as the archi- 
tect, had no difficulty in determining what necessary 
alterations should be made to bring the house back 
to its condition prior to the year 1800. The most 
important steps were to remove from the main con- 
struction a small north wing which was added about 
1830, and to reconstruct the back porch, destroyed 
about 1880, the foundation stones for which still 
existed. Then, too, the smoke-house was to be re- 
placed after a picture of the original one, a well- 
curb reproduced, and the roof reshingled. With 
these there were numerous small but troublesome 
repairs — rotted beams were to be mended, requiring 
much time and labor in the process, especially since 
it was decided that only hand-hewn timbers of 
similar age should be used in repairs. Within the 
house the only serious changes were in the wood- 
work of the hall and dining-room, which had been 
"modernized" about 1850. Here, however, it was 
only necessary to copy the older woodwork found 
either under the newer pieces, or in some other part 
of the house, and to obtain the lacking hinges, locks, 



PARK AND MUSEUM I5 

latches, hand-made nails, etc., from other houses of 
similar date. The double, or "Dutch," doors, for- 
tunately, were original, save in the summer kitchen. 
It was then found necessary to repaint all original 
exterior woodwork, which was in bad condition, both 
to preserve it and to make it appear in its original 
state. And around the place a stone wall was built, 
whose details were designed to correspond with the 
walls of the house. 

In arranging the interior of the house the effort 
was made to restore the rooms to their primitive 
condition. With this in view each room was studied 
carefully; thus, the original colors of walls and wood- 
work were discovered after removing later coats of 
paint, and the old furniture was put back, in so far 
as possible, into its original position. 

The garden was given its brick paths very much 
on the old lines, and a number of the present trees 
and shrubs replace similar ones shown in early pic- 
tures. We note, by the way, that the lilac bushes 
at the south end of the house remain unchanged. 
The boxwood is approximately in its primitive posi- 
tion. And the old-fashioned flowers are not unlike 
those which flowered in similar beds over a century 
ago. Among the old-fashioned plants seen about 
the garden are hollyhocks, peonies, day lilies, roses 
of Sharon, rockets, clove pinks, and old-time roses. 
A few apple trees have been planted nearby to re- 
mind one of the great orchards which formerly sur- 
rounded the place, and, for reasons sentimental, a 
cherry tree has been grafted from the last known of 
the Dyckman cherries, which still stands in the field 
opposite the ancient house. This cherry repre- 



l6 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

sented an especial strain widely known in the early 
nineteenth century. According to family tradition, 
States Morris Dyckman, when travelling abroad, 
sent to his cousin, Jacobus Dyckman, then the owner 
of the house, a number of saplings of a German 
cherry then in vogue, the black Tartarean; one of 
these in the new environment produced a sport which 
soon became known as the Dyckman cherry, having 
fruit of delicate flavor and of great size. The race, 
unhappily, has long since run out. The most char- 
acteristic feature of the garden is easily the ancient 
boxwood which was generously given to the little 
park by Mr. Edmund D. Randolph, from his estate 
Brookside, at .Mount St. Vincent, where it had flour- 
ished for nearly a century. 



THE INTEREST OF ITS LOCALITY 

THE region of the old house is of considerable 
antiquarian interest. Near its site was in 
earliest days a large Indian village. Even 
to-day Indian relics "turn up" not infrequently. 
The Creek, which formed a loop a few hundred yards 
north of the house, was a favorite fishing ground, 
famous, by the way, for striped bass, and in it were 
natural oyster-beds of great fertility. Shell-heaps 
marking camp sites are abundant, and in them have 
been found arrow points, sinkers for fish-nets, and 
the various odds and ends of aboriginal life. Cold 
Spring, which a few rods farther on bubbled up in 
great volume under the lee of "Cock Hill," was fam- 
ous in Indian and Colonial times. Around the old 
house Indians camped, and from the shell beds and 
fire pits in the neighborhood many pieces of pottery 
have been obtained, some of which, of large size and 
extraordinary preservation, are exhibited in the 
American Museum of Natural History. The In- 
dians remained in this neighborhood until well into 
the nineteenth century. The last of their race lived 
near the west end of the "cutting" for the ship 



1(5 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

canal as late as 1835. Their stock, however, as on 
Long Island and elsewhere, had changed, having in- 
termarried with negro slaves; and it is to be noted 
that in the neighboring Indian graveyards, where 
burials were made in the characteristic primitive 
fashion — the body bent and lying on its side on 
ashes and oyster shells, sometimes with a dog placed 
nearby — there are also found negro skeletons with 
which appear coffin nails and buttons. Quite close 
to the old house there were two Indian cemeteries, 
one east of the house and one almost south — the 
latter still used in the memory of Mr. Isaac Michael 
Dyckman as the burial-ground for negro servants. 
Of these there were many on the farm, some of them 
the descendants of slaves, most of them in part of 
Indian stock. 

During the Revolution the region of Kingsbridge 
probably witnessed more of the actual doings of war 
than any other part of the revolted Colonies. For 
six years or more it sheltered armies whose goings 
and comings were every-day matters. Early in the 
war it was occupied by the Continental Army, prob- 
ably as many as ten thousand troops, after the 
affair of Harlem Heights. It was evacuated just be- 
fore the battle of White Plains and the local bridges 
(including a bridge of boats) were destroyed, though 
the Americans still held Fort Washington, Cock Hill 
Fort (Inwood Hill), and Fort Independence on Kings- 
bridge Heights, the last two of these to be aban- 
doned the day after White Plains (/. e., October 29, 
1776), the first to be captured less than a month 
later. At this particular time the Dyckman farm 
swarmed with the enemy's troops. General Knyp- 



PARK AND MUSEUM I9 

hausen and his Hessians advanced to attack the fort 
from Kingsbridge by the way of the "gorge/" which 
is not far from the site of the present Broadway, be- 
ginning near Dyckman Street. After the fall of 
Fort Washington, when some twenty-three hundred 
American troops were captured, the Kingsbridge re- 
gion became for seven years the actual outer defense 
of the British holding New York. And we learn 
much of the happenings there during later years 
through the serious memoirs (published 1798) of the 
American General Heath, and through the gossipy 
diary of a German soldier of fortune, von Krafft by 
name (published 1882, in Collections New York His- 
torical Society), who gives, by the way, a topo- 
graphical sketch of this region taken from the ledge 
of Laurel Hill (Fort George). And many details of 
this long occupation of the British here have lately 
been published by Mr. Reginald Pelham Bolton 
("Relics of the Revolution," 19 16). Thus we know 
where large camps were located, American, Hessian, 
Hanoverian, Highlander, Loyalist, and British Reg- 
ular. Especially interesting is the information which 
has been discovered regarding the large camp or 
cantonment which was sheltered by the hillside a 
few hundred feet west of the Dyckman house, where 
log cabins were built, perhaps several hundred in 
number. Here Mr. Bolton and his associates, 
Messrs. Calver, Hall, Dunsmore, 1 hurston, and 
Barck, have labored for months, even years, digging 
up the ancient works and studying with antiquarian 
devotion the relics which were unearthed. In this 
connection we record gratefully Mr. Bolton's labor 
of love in supervising for us the reconstruction of an 



20 



THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 



officer's hut, which will long remain as an interesting 
relic of the Revolution in the little Dyckman Park. 
This hut is composed of materials (excepting wooden 
parts) taken from an actual hut in the neighboring 
hillside, and each stone is replaced in almost exact 
relation to its neighbors (Fig. 3). 




FIG. 3 
MR. BOLTON AND HIS FRIENDS DIGGING OUT THE STONE- 
WORK OF THE REVOLUTIONARY HUT IN THE HILLSIDE 
WEST OF THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 



The close of the Revolution saw many changes in 
the neighborhood of Kingsbridge. The camps were 
swept away, the huts were filled in or burned, the 
timber in part carried away for use in the upbuilding 
of ruined farmhouses, outbuildings and fences. New- 
roads were established, notably Broadway, which 
arose during the war as a short cut from the forts 
below to the northern end of the island. And the 
period of "reconstruction" saw new houses estab- 
lished near it, like the present Dyckman house, the 



PARK AND MUSEUM 21 

planting of new farm land, and the blossoming out 
of new orchards — the older ones having been cut 
down to form a barricade between the two defenses 
to the south, Fort George and Fort Tryon. There 
was then in the air everywhere a feeling of confidence 
and of approaching national prosperity. In a letter 
of States Morris Dyckman, dated 1789, to a friend 
in England, he notes the 'change which has taken 
place in the disposition of the people — prosperity is 
at hand — and the change is decidedly for the better 
— they already show the effects of a good and per- 
manent government.' Commerce began to flourish. 
Stages multiplied, and many private coaches and 
equestrians passed in front of the present house, and 
not a few stopped there for a chat with Mr. Jacobus 
Dyckman, who was widely known. The road was 
travelled by such personages as Washington, Hamil- 
ton, Schuyler, Lafayette, Chancellor Livingston, 
Burr, and Clinton. From that time until within a 
relatively few years the region of the old house has 
changed but little. As late as 1896 the quail were 
calling in Mr. Isaac Michael Dyckman's fields (near 
the present car shed of 218th Street) — just as they 
had near the same place when the last wild deer were 
shot a centurv and a half earlier. 



CONCERNING THE BUILDER OF THE 
HOUSE AND HIS FAMILY 

WILLIAM DYCKMAN, who built the 
present house, was a grandson of Jan 
Dyckman, who came to New Amster- 
dam from Bentheim, Westphalia, toward the close 
of the Dutch occupation of New York (1660), set- 
tled in Harlem, and became one of the leading men 
of the new community. He is mentioned in the 
troubles with the Indians, when he was corporal of 
his company, and he is often referred to in the sub- 
sequent development of the uppermost part of Man- 
hattan Island. With his associate, Jan Nagel, he 
was awarded a part of the present Dyckman tract 
about 1677, a portion of which land it is interesting 
to note remained in the hands of his descendants up 
to the present year, nearly two hundred and forty 
years later, when Mrs. Dean and Mrs. Welch ex- 
changed two of the original lots for the adjacent two 
northern lots of the present little park. Jan Dyck- 
man, it appeared, was an unusually energetic and 
far-sighted person. He it was who devised a means 
of inducing tenants to develop his land by offering 
leases of long standing on practically nominal terms. 
One of them gave his tenant the use of valuable 



PARK AND MUSEUM 23 

property for seven years for a rental of a hen a 
year. It was, moreover, his plan to select particu- 
lar pieces of property of great fertility, insuring 
profitable development, and his success — and he was 
notably successful in his day — was due in no little 
measure to this kind of business judgment. It may 
be noted that his talent in this direction was heredi- 
tary. Each generation of Dyckmans added desir- 
able land to the ancient farm. 7 he family, in fact, 
early became conspicuous as investors in real estate, 
until at last their holdings stretched from the top 
of Fort George throughout the " Dyckman Iract," 
northward beyond 230th Street, eastward to the 
Harlem River, and westward to Broadway, in part 
to Spuyten Duyvil Creek and 1 ibbit's Brook.* 

It became a family tradition that the Kingsbridge 
lands should be held in single hands and not sub- 
divided among many children. The property was 
never entailed, still there was the understanding 
that the member of the younger generation who best 
exhibited the family trait should be the holder of the 
family estate, and be looked upon as the head of the 
family. The remaining children received their 
shares in money which ultimately came from the 
profits of the paternal farm. 

Thus William Dyckman, mentioned above, was 
himself a third son when he inherited the estate from 

* At one lime (i(S68) their farm included about 400 acres, 
which is one of the largest in the history of Manhattan Island. 
We learn through the kindness of Judge James P. Davenpiort 
that its only rivals were the early farms of Petrus Stuyvesant 
(1805), James de Lance\' (1783), and Tcuni^ Eidesse Van Huyse 
(1720). 



24 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

his father in 1773; his home was then near the Har- 
lem River, on the north side of 210th Street, about 
350 feet east of Ninth Avenue and near the old 
Century House, which was the early home of his 
cousins, the Nagels. This house we believe he 
built at the time of his marriage; his father's and 
grandfather's house, which was probably a larger 
and better one, was south and west of it (2o8-209th 
Streets, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues). But 
he did not long enjoy this family homestead. The 
Revolution came and Kingsbridge, as the head- 
quarters of an army, was no longer a place of safety 
for his family, especially when his sympathies were 
with the Americans. So his home was abandoned 
and for the remainder of the war he lived with his 
cousins near Peekskill. He was then beyond the 
military age, and he appears to have taken no active 
part in the war. But four of his sons were soldiers, 
and of these two were given the rank of lieutenant 
and were chosen to serve among the famous West- 
chester County Guides. They are mentioned by 
General Heath in his memoirs as experts in this 
dangerous service. One of them, Michael Dyckman, 
learning the countersign of the Loyalists' camp in 
Fordham (just below the present buildings of New 
York University, and in sight of the old house — be- 
fore the apartment houses appeared), led his party 
right into Emerich's cantonment and killed or 
captured forty refugees. Another time, and in the 
same region, his brother, Abraham Dyckman, fol- 
lowed by thirteen volunteer horsemen, took five 
prisoners of de Lancey's corps, and on their return, 
when attacked by the enemy's cavalry, 'Taced 



PARK AND MUSEUM 25 

about, charged vigorously, took one man prisoner 
with his horse and put the rest to flight." Abraham 
it was, too, who penetrated the Tory camp and took 
Captain Ogden prisoner in his quarters, while the 
British sentry was pacing nearby on Farmer's 
Bridge. General Heath goes out of his way to de- 
scribe Mr. Dyckman as a "brave and active man." 
His next expedition was fatal, however, for he was 
wounded in an attack on the headquarters of Colonel 
de Lancey, whom he hoped to bring back a prisoner. 
The wounded guide was taken to Yorktown (near 
Peekskill). where he died several days later, prob- 
ably with his father by his side. He was given a 
military funeral, at which General Washington was 
present. 

When William Dyckman returned to Kingsbridge 
he found his old house burned to the ground — a 
costly compliment which the British paid the family 
for their services in the American cause. Then, too, 
the farm was a ruin in every sense — the fields were 
bare, orchards were cut down, and the last of the 
stock destroyed. Nevertheless the work of re- 
habilitation was immediately begun. Timbers were 
dragged from whatever of the old buildings still 
remained in the neighborhood to the site of the 
present house. Cut stone, too, appears to have been 
brought from the earlier sites. It is more than pos- 
sible that the newer house is not widely different in 
plan from the earlier homestead. William Dyck- 
man did not live to see the complete restoration of 
his farm. He died in 1787, probably in the little 
room in which the Pelham Bolton collection is now 
arranged. An interesting relic of him is his Bible 



26 



THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 



(Fig. 4), which is shown in the back hall-room with 
other mementoes of the family, its records begin 
with his birth in 1725, though from its early date of 
publication (1702) it may have belonged to Jan 
Dyckman (died 171 5), for it is possible that a page 
containing earlier records was lost. In itself the 




FIG. 4 

DUTCH BIBLE OF WILLIAM DYCKMAN. PUBLISHED IN LEYDEN, 
1702, AND CONTAINING FAMILY RECORDS 



book is an excellent example of the Dutch Bible of 
its day, with wooden binding encased in pigskin, 
heavy brass mounts and numerous illustrations in 
copperplate. With its records of William Dyckman 
are those of his wife, Mary Turner, as the Bible 
spells it — for by that time the ancient spelling of 
her name, "de 7 ourneur," was overlooked. She was 
a granddaughter of Daniel de Tourneur, who fled 
from a little town in Picardy, about 1652, during 
Huguenot troubles. He was a prosperous burgher 
of New Harlem, becoming sheriff, magistrate and 
delegate to the general assembly. He was a man of 



PARK AND MUSEUM 27 

high spirit, losing his temper magnificently, the old 
records say, when reminded that the proximate cause 
of his emigration to America had been a homicide! 
It is known that Mr. de Tourneur, when attending 
the funeral of a friend, a Huguenot, in his native 
town had denied the king's command to stop the 
Protestant service, and when arrested by the officer 
of the guard had lost his temper, drawn his rapier, 
killed the officer and put the soldiers to flight. His 
granddaughter survived her husband by many 
years, dying in the old house in 1802. 

William Dyckman's father was Jacob Dyckman 
(1692-1773), well known in his day for his keen in- 
terest in agriculture. He sought new seeds and ex- 
perimented with them, and was an early importer of 
blooded stock; one of his letters is extant (1765), 
written to Sir William Johnson on the Mohawk, 
dealing with farming matters. He was a person of 
considerable determination; rather than pay the 
penny toll to the Philipse family for the use of their 
bridge over the Harlem, he is said to have rallied 
his friends and spent a small fortune building a long 
causeway and bridge which should be free for the 
farmers. This became known as the Farmers' 
Bridge, but is always called on old maps Dyckman's 
Bridge. 

When William Dyckman died, in 1787, the farm 
passed to his eldest son. Jacobus, who added ma- 
terially to the family holdings. He died in 1837, 
and was well remembered by his grandson, Isaac 
Michael Dyckman, from whom we learned that he 
was a man of tall stature, stooping somewhat in old 
age, and carrying a long cane painted in spiral bands 



25 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

of green and white. He had dark complexion, steel- 
gray hair, strong features, aquiline nose and blue 
eyes. It is a pity that no portrait of him exists, for 
he was a man worthy of being remembered. As a 
young man he had been a soldier of the Continental 
army; when old he was widely known for his clear 
judgment and effective methods — which caused him 
to be elected a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention of 182!. His copy of the minutes of this 
convention is preserved, and shows that he took 
part in almost every item of business transacted. 
At Kingsbridge, in his last years, he became the 
court of last appeal in local matters. In front of 
his gate might be seen the coaches of such of his 
neighbors as Mrs. Aaron Burr (Madame Jumel) and 
Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, who called upon him 
(let us hope not at the same time) for advice about 
the management of their property. To his house 
came people whose interest was farming or politics, 
and not a few scholars in their day. Two of his sons 
were graduates of Columbia College, and their pre- 
ceptors were apt to visit them, especially Doctor 
David Hosack, the botanist and anatomist, who took 
an especial interest in the career of Jacob Dyckman 
(Columbia, 1810; medicine, 1813), the elder of the 
two, who promised to become one of the great 
medical men of the country. He was appointed 
Health Commissioner of New York while a very 
young m.an, but, contracting consumption, died in 
his early thirties. Incidentally, it was he, when 
secretary of the Philosophical Society, who obtained 
the Benjamin Franklin chair for his Alma Mater, 
which is still used by Columbia's presidents on state 



PARK AND MUSEUM 29 

occasions. A beautifully bound copy of Doctor 
Dyckman's book (1814) on the "Pathology of the 
Human Fluids" is shown in the present museum, 
which was presented to "Mr. Jacobus Dyckman 
from his affectionate and dutiful son, the Author." 
The doctor's younger brother, James (Jacobus), 
graduated from Columbia in 181 1 (A. M. 181 3), 
salutatorian of his class, became a lawyer, but died 
at the age of twenty-three. Some of his admirably 
written speeches are preserved, and a medal, "elo- 
quentiae premium," given him by the Peithologian 
Society of Columbia, 1810. 

The property next passed to two younger sons of 
Jacobus Dyckman, Isaac and Michael, to whom had 
descended the family skill in its management. They 
remained unmarried, devoted themselves to their 
affairs and added to their holdings. For one thing 
fortune favored them: their great farm had the 
reputation of yielding the earliest and best varieties 
of fruits and vegetables, in a day, too, when the 
market could not depend upon distant producers. 
Then, also, it was found that the farm was a con- 
venient stopping-point for the great herds of cattle 
which were sent "by hoof" to the Bull's Head 
Market. This fact, in a measure, was the cause of 
the decline of the Dyckman House. For while it 
was found profitable to allow the cattle to remain 
over night on the farm, it was also found far from 
pleasant to have them in the neighborhood, and to 
keep an eye on the herdsmen themselves, who, like 
the notorious Daniel Drew, would be apt to make 
themselves at home in their house. Hence it was 
that Isaac Dyckman and his brother abandoned 



30 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

their grandfather's home and moved into the "old 
yellow house," pictured, by the way, in Valentine's 
Manual of 1861, which stood half a mile away on 
the upper part of the farm, surrounded by splendid 
boxwood, and overlooking a little creek and a tide- 
mill, which later became the site of the present ship 
canal. In this house the elder and surviving 
brother, Isaac, died in 1868. Isaac Dyckman was 
remembered as a man of considerable influence in 
the community. He was a fluent speaker, tall, 
good looking, and pleasant in manner. He was for 
a long time Alderman in a day when this post was 
one of considerable honor. We are told that when 
he passed by the local schoolhouse, the land for 
which he had, by the way, presented to the City, 
the children gathered in military fashion, the boys 
on one side of the street, the little girls on the other, 
and saluted and curtsied. 

At the death of Mr. Dyckman it was found that 
the large estate was to be divided. There were no 
heirs bearing the name of Dyckman, and the property 
was to be sub-divided, especially among a number of 
nephews and nieces, one of whom became the prin- 
cipal heir. This was James Frederick Dyckman 
Smith, who, in memory of his uncles, in 1868 became 
by act of legislature Isaac Michael Dyckman. He 
was the son of Mr. Dyckman's sister Hannah, who 
had married Squire Caleb Smith, of Yonkers; he had 
lived in the homestead since 1820, when as a boy of 
seven he had gone to Kingsbridge to visit his grand- 
father. Jacobus Dyckman. It seems that the boy 
had the faculty of making friends, and affectionate 
ones, so it was not remarkable that first his grand- 



PARK AND MUSEUM 3I 

father and later his uncles tried to keep him with 
them and wished to train him to be their successor. 
For this meant a great deal to them, both in senti- 
ment and practice, for the estate required especial 
care in its up-keep, and the surviving uncle, Isaac 
Dyckman, came naturally to look to his nephew for 
help in all directions. This was then the more 
necessary, since at that time the property had 
reached its greatest dimensions. 

Mr. Isaac Michael Dyckman (b. 1813) lived in 
the old house between 1820 and about 1850; there- 
after he moved with his uncles to the yellow house 
already noted. He married, in 1867, his kinswoman, 
Fannie Blackwell Brown, daughter of Benjamin and 
Hannah (Odell) Brown, of Yonkers, and great- 
granddaughter of Jacobus Dyckman, and built the 
home still standing on 218th Street, west of Broad- 
way, where he lived the greater part of the time 
until his death in 1899. With Mrs. Dyckman he 
devoted himself largely to religious and charitable 
affairs. He was for a long time ruling elder and 
treasurer in the Mount Washington Presbyterian 
Church, which still stands on the corner of Dyckman 
Street, and he was a constant attendant at the meet- 
ings of the New York Presbytery, of which he was 
a member. He was greatly interested in historical 
and educational matters, acting as trustee to the 
old Dyckman Library and founding in Columbia 
University a research fund in memory of his uncles, 
Jacob and Jacobus, Columbia, 1810, 181 1. Mrs. 
Dyckman survived her husband fifteen years, dying 
in 1914, and at her death, leaving no male issue, 
the family name in the region of Kingsbridge be- 



32 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

came extinct, after having been identified with the 
locaHty for about two and a half centuries. Mrs. 
Dyckman, it may be mentioned, followed sympa- 
thetically her husband's interests; she gave gener- 
ouslv to benevolent societies, missions and churches. 




FIG. 5 

SUMMER KITCHEN IN SOUTHERN EXTENSION 
REAR DOORWAY 



IV 
THE DYCKMAN HOUSE: DETAILS 

THE Dyckman house stands on what is now 
the northwest comer of 204th Street and 
Broadway. The avenue in front of it has 
been lowered about fifteen feet, leaving the house 
on a knoll. Even in early days, however, it was 
situated on a rise of land which looked southeastward 
over the wide-spread apple orchards towards the 
Harlem River and Fordham (where now the New 
York University forms a landmark); to the south 
rose the heights of Fort George and Fort Washington; 
on the west was the ridge of Inwood, early known as 
Mount Washington, and through the notch at the 
west end of Dyckman Street one had a glimpse of 
the Palisades. In the spring it overlooked a fair 
country, with a foreground of green meadows and 
browsing herds, a middle distance of flowering 
orchards of apple, peach and cherry. Its owner 
might have long sat on this wide front porch, settled 
comfortably in a deep slat-backed armchair, soothed 
by the hum of bees in the blossoms nearby, and 
watching lazily through the rings of smoke from a 
long-stemmed pipe the post-rider as he passed the 
thirteenth milestone, which was nearly in front of 
the old house. 

33 



34 THE UYCKMAN HOUSE 

The house itself has basement, parlor floor, bed- 
room floor and attic (Fig. i). It is well built. 
Its stone walls are twenty inches thick, and are con- 
tinued up to the window ledges of the sleeping-room 
floor; above them heavy, hand-hewn white oak beams 
covered with wide clapboards fill in the space to the 
peak of the gambrel roof, which, incidentally, has 
an exceptionally graceful curve. 

The house had two extensions. The one to the 
south contained the summer kitchen and will later 
be described. The one to the north was relatively 
new, dating about 1830, built to provide additional 
room for servants. This has now been removed. 

There are two rare features in the construction of 
the old house. It had a front of brick instead of 
field-stone, and it had also a basement. The latter 
was a feature which possibly arose from the situation 
of the house, for it was built against a ledge of rock, 
which supports the entire rear wall, and permitted, 
therefore, an unusual depth below. 

In the basement was a winter kitchen, having a 
large brick fireplace; beside this room, at the north, 
was a roomy and dry cellar, which no doubt was 
well provisioned in its day with winter vegetables and 
pans of milk resting on swinging shelves, the sup- 
ports of which are still preserved. Into this cellar 
one might enter from without, from an inclined 
passageway, down a couple of steps, and through 
sloping cellar doors, in the ancient Dutch fashion. 

The parlor floor is margined east and west by 
wide porches continued the full length of the house. 
It has the usual broad hall extending through the 
middle of the house from front to back, opening 



PARKANDMUSEUM 35 

right and left into the main rooms. Here stands a 
tall Dutch clock. On the right as we enter the 
front door one looks into the parlor, at the left into 
the dining-room, which was just above the winter 
kitchen. In front is the narrow staircase, margined 
primly with a straight cherry rail, and below the 
turn of the stairs one sees through the opened half- 
door the trees on the slope of Inwood Ridge. Be- 
hind the parlor and also opening into the hall was a 
smaller room, known as Isaac Dyckman's room, and 
across the hall, opening by a doorway under the 
staircase, one could descend to the winter kitchen, 
or could enter through a small, dark passageway up 
and down three steps into a small back room, and 
thence into the rear of the dining-room. This room 
was known as Grandfather Dyckman's, and here, 
we believe, died William Dyckman in 1787. 

The sleeping-room floor includes five rooms. Of 
two small bedrooms at the rear only one opens into 
the hall — this is called Isaac Michael Dyckman's 
room. The two main rooms north and south are 
known, respectively, as the uncles' room and Jacobus 
Dyckman's room; into the latter opened the second 
rear room, which is believed to have been occupied 
by the youngest children. The front of the hall was 
enclosed as a dark, servant's or nurse's bedroom, 
from which passed curious low storage spaces, "like 
secret passageways," north and south, formed by 
the overhanging eaves and lighted by small bull's- 
eyes at either end of the house. A stepladder leads 
to the garret, in which one may see the hand-hewn 
timber of the old house reaching upward to the gable 
and roofing a space which was invaluable in domestic 



36 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

economy of olden times. Here stood disused bed- 
steads, ancient hide-covered trunks, supernumerary 
band-boxes, spinning-wheels and the like. This great 
space was again lighted by bull's-eyes at either end 
of the house. 




FIG. 6 
KITCHEN FIREPLACE, SHOWING BAKE-OVENS 

The southern addition contains, as we have said, 
a summer kitchen (Figs. 5 and 6), and above it was 
a large servants' room. This addition, we believe, 
was really of earlier date than the house itself, hav- 
ing probably been built prior to the American Revo- 
lution. For we know that the main building was 
erected in or about 1783, the year when William 
Dyckman returned to his home after the evacuation 
of the city by the British. His old house had been 



PARK AND MUSEUM 37 

burned and he probably lived in the present addition, 
which served earlier as a foreman's cottage, or was 
possibly part of his first house, from 210th Street. 
This is evidenced by the character of the ceiling of 
its main room, which shows open rafters with beaded 
edges, also an early type of fireplace. Another rea- 
son for its greater age is that its north wall is covered 
with clapboards, although it faced the stone wall of 
the main house, thus showing conclusively that the 
stone wall must either have been built against the 
clapboards or that the small addition must sub- 
sequently have been moved up against the house. 
During the first half of the nineteenth century this 
addition was occupied by the cook, black Hannah, 
who had been born on the place as the daughter of 
a slave who was partly of Indian blood. Tradition 
describes her with a bright-colored headgear, face 
black as ebony, temper decidedly irregular, and a 
strong leaning toward a corncob pipe. Her kitchen, 
with its white floor strewn with sand in patterns, 
did not open into the house itself, but on a porch 
from which one had also access to the winter 
kitchen. 

In arranging the interior of the house, the effort 
has been made to preserve the appearance of each 
room in its original condition. The old pieces of 
furniture taken from the house when Isaac Dyckman 
moved away have been carefully collected and put 
back, so far as possible, in their original position. 
Where objects from the homestead were not pre- 
served their place is filled with similar pieces which, 
with but few exceptions,* were in the possession of 

*We except also kitchen utensils in large part. 



38 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

Other members of the Dyckman family or of its 
connections. 

The house is interesting, therefore, as exhibiting 
with considerable accuracy the indoor surroundings 
of a well-to-do family about the year 1800. And 
they are the more interesting since the conditions of 
those simpler days are rapidly fading from memory. 
How many to-day, for example, even those of us who 
pride ourselves on our housekeeping and cookery, 
could go into one of the old kitchens of the present 
house and make use of the apparatus there? How 
many of us could start a kitchen fire without the use 
of matches? — some of us do not know a tinder-box 
when we see one, far less the practical use of flint 
and steel. The art of such primitive fire-making is 
well-nigh forgotten. Even such an expert in Colonial 
matters as Alice Morse Earle, who has written de- 
lightfully of ancient customs, confesses that she has 
never learned the trick of the tinder-box, which 
probably any Dyckman child of six could have shown 
her! How many of us could build a wood fire which 
would last, fix a back log, or bank embers so they 
would keep like vestal fire — or use convincingly the 
curious trammels or pot hooks for the huge kettles, 
or skillets, or skimmers, or waffle-irons, or a Dutch 
oven or a bake oven? The former oven is the con- 
trivance in tin which stands in front of the open 
fireplace in the present winter kitchen to collect the 
heat and reflect it upon an object which was slowly 
rotated on a spit, sometimes with the aid of a trained 
"turnspit" dog. Of bake ovens, we have two ex- 
cellent specimens in the summer kitchen (Fig. 6), so 
large that they appear on the outside of the house, 



PARK AND MUSEUM 39 

projecting behind the chimney Hke buttresses, and 
indicating the size of the farm and the number of its 
slaves and helpers to be provided for. These were 
by no means as convenient in use as the modern 
kitchen oven; they required special fuel, which was 
laid in a definite way so as to produce a rapid, hot 
fire, a flue connecting the oven with the kitchen 
chimney. When the brick walls of the oven were 
hot, the ashes were removed, the oven floor cleaned,, 
and the pies, bread and cake introduced, all at the 
same time, and all on the bare floor. The oven door 
was then closed and baking began. At the end the 
objects would be taken out by the aid of the wooden 
shovel, or "peel." 

In those days there were no convenient shops at 
which house-keeping supplies, including the com- 
monest dry goods, could be purchased. Even can- 
dles, the only means of lighting the house, were made 
at home: the tallow was hoarded and tried out, 
wicks were made and candles fashioned in moulds like 
the ones seen here. So, too, soap had to be made at 
intervals — not very attractive looking soap either — 
lard-like and messy, for "hard soap" was then a 
new invention and little used. Soft soap was made 
by "cutting" kitchen fats with a strong lye, which 
the housewife dissolved out of wood ashes in a great 
iron pot, hence the name of the alkali "potash." 
When the housewife was not busy supervising such 
work as this, or cooking, or "tending" children, she 
visited the dairy, or looked after the chickens, geese 
and ducks, sewed and spun — for in those days her 
work began early and ended never. Her spinning 
was often relaxation, like the fancy-work of her great- 



40 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

granddaughter, and she prided herself on the thin- 
ness and evenness of the hnen thread which her hard- 
tipped fingers twisted from the great hank of golden 
flax, while her foot pressed the treadle automatically; 
or on the perfect strands of worsted she spun as she 
tapped the tall wool-wheel round. Even the weav- 
ing of the linen or cloth was apt to be done under the 
same roof by some skilful member of the family, 
whose loom was at other times stored away in the 
garret. Shoes, too, were nearly always fashioned in 
the house, either by home talent or by a journeyman 
cobbler who appeared at regular intervals and shod 
the entire family, from baby to grandfather. Almost 
every house had then its collection of lasts and its 
kit of tools. In those days work of this kind was 
not despised by even wealthy people, and to learn 
a trade was almost as much a part of a boy's educa- 
tion as to learn the three R's. 

In all old houses, lanterns appear to us surprisingly 
abundant until one considers how useful they were 
inside of a house where halls were unlighted, and 
where almost every room not in use was dark — and 
outside of a house where streets were dirty and so 
uneven that to carry a lantern became almost a 
means of self-preservation. Near one of the present 
lanterns is a rattle which was used by a watchman 
in calling for help, or by a householder when scenting 
burglars. For in those days there was no police 
station to be telephoned to, and each house had very 
largely to protect itself. Hence a loaded firelock 
usually appeared in some corner or was hung above 
the mantelpiece — and not uncommonly a sword or 
two. In the present house the Revolutionary mus- 



PARK AND MUSEUM 4I 

ket hanging in the large kitchen belonged to one 
of the Dyckmans, probably Jacobus, already men- 
tioned. 

The interest of the old house is evidently the 
greater if the visitor is able to picture it in olden 
times. And to aid his vision he must be willing to 
examine the details of structure and furnishings and 
to decide how and why they were used, and what 
they accompanied. The chairs tell us of a straight- 
backed generation, when life was far more earnest 
than to-day, when emotions, whether laughter or 
tears, were repressed, when children were kept apart 
and were not allowed to sit down in their elders' 
presence without formal permission. The moulding 
or chair-rail, about the wall, shows that chairs were 
often placed close to the plaster, which was thus 
prudently guarded against injury. The mantels, 
which, by the way, are the original ones, save in the 
dining-room, are tall, narrow and formal, simple in 
ornament, with ledge just wide enough for the silver 
or Sheffield candlesticks and the snuffers correspond- 
ing, which stood between them on a tray, or the 
candelabra with crystal pendants of slightly later 
date, which in the present parlor were lighted splen- 
didly on formal occasions, when guests talked of the 
duel of Burr and Hamilton, or of the Clermont 
puffing up the Hudson, or of Decatur's African 
pirates. During a later evening, when logs crackled 
on the wide hearth, and the andirons, tongs and 
shovel shone like gold, Isaac Michael Dyckman as 
a boy declaimed before his admiring uncles Jeffer- 
son's speeches, or Cicero's "Cataline," which his 
tutor, "old Curtis from Dartmouth," had just taught 



42 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

him in the upstairs room. The little window-panes 
speak of the time when glass was more easily had 
in small "lights"- — when panes were green, uneven 
and bubbly, rusting in the air from poor chemical 
composition. But while glass was rare, iron was 
conspicuous, as one infers from the door hinges and 
their massive construction, for part of the hinge ran 
strap-like over the woodwork before carpenters 
learned to hide the metal within the crease of the 
door. Double doors are characteristic of Dutch 
houses, with their curious hinges and latches which 
enabled the housewife to keep doors open but at 
the same time keep out of her halls the tracking 
feet of domestic animals — and children. On our 
front door is the knocker from a Dyckman house 
(Boscobel), which probably all older members of the 
family have used from 1795. 

Substantial furniture, mainly of mahogany, was in 
use in those days. And the present chairs, tables, 
dressers and sideboard are good examples of their 
class. In the dining-room the Dyckman sideboard 
is still in its place of honor, bearing family Sheffield 
and cut-glass decanters. The excellent eight-legged 
dining table, dating from 1740, belonged to a con- 
nection of the family, and held in early times many 
heavy trenchers of pewter, blue-and-white crockery, 
slim Colonial silver, — and not a few corpses, for in 
those days the state table was used to support the 
coffin at family funerals. 

The bedrooms suggest many by-gone customs. 
The four-post bedsteads, with their curtains and 
valances, recall the days when bedrooms were 
usually unheated and draughty, and when the use 



PARK AND MUSEUM 43 

of heavy nightgowns was general and of nightcaps, 
for men, women and children, was universal. The 
Dyckman warming-pan by the fireplace, when filled 
with hot embers,, has taken the chill from many a 
cold feather-bed in the olden times. And in the 
winged chair Jemima Dyckman has sat near a 
window, yet comfortably out of the draught,- while 
the room was being heated by a Franklin, such as 
one sees now in the fireplace. . This kind of an iron 
fireplace, invented late in the eighteenth century, 
brought the heat more economically into the room 
and was the progenitor of the long line of iron stoves. 
Nearby one sees the family cradle, a heavy box-like 
affair, in which generations of Dyckman babies, in- 
cluding Mrs. Isaac Michael Dyckman, were thor- 
oughly rocked. Some of them grew up to work 
with patient fingers the samplers which one sees 
framed on the walls nearby. 

Two rooms have been set aside more definitely 
for museum purposes. Behind the dining-room, in 
William Dyckman's bedroom, one may examine the 
Reginald Pelham Bolton collection of objects of 
local interest. These have been recovered by Mr. 
Bolton and his friends from Revolutionary camp 
sites and from ash heaps and kitchen middens of the 
early houses in the neighborhood. The Dyckman 
houses yielded many of the important objects here 
shown, including fragments of leaded glass which 
one hardly associates with early American domestic 
architecture. There are also primitive knives, forks, 
spoons, brooches, fragments of Dutch tiles, coins, 
and many specimens of pottery and porcelain. The 
latter show, by the way, not a little artistic merit. 



44 THEDYCKMANHOUSE 

It is from an examination of this material that one 
sees clearly that the early people of the neighborhood 
were fond of good things and chose them intelli- 
gently. 

In the second room, immediately behind the par- 
lor, which belonged to Isaac Dyckman, one sees 
numerous family heirlooms of all kinds, some from 
the Kingsbridge Dyckmans and some from their 
cousin. States Morris Dyckman, who lived near 
Peekskill, at Kings Ferry, where his house, Boscobel, 
still exists. Many of the latter objects were bought 
by States Dyckman during his years' travels abroad 
and have considerable artistic interest. With a num- 
ber of them appear original bills, e. g., from Josiah 
Wedgwood for the specimens of blue-and-white 
cameo-ware here shown. Probably the most per- 
sonal relic of the early owners of the house is the 
family Bible (Fig. 4), which occupies a place in the 
central case. Here also are objects of jewelry, books 
showing early bookplates, silverware and porcelain. 
Mr. Isaac Dyckman's desk stands nearby, which 
contained formerly many old papers and sheepskin 
indentures relating to the present property. On 
the walls are portraits, early letters, maps and docu- 
ments showing the signatures of pioneers in the 
neighborhood. 



V 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

DURING the past year not a little generous 
help has been given us in our effort to restore 
the old house. The first one to befriend us 
was the Commissioner of Parks, Hon. Cabot Ward, 
seconded by Mr. Carl F. Pilat. Next to them should 
be mentioned Mr. Reginald Pelham Bolton, who 
contributed his unique collection above mentioned, 
representing years of practical research, and who 
has given his time and knowledge freely in restoring 
for us the Revolutionary hut. With Mr. Bolton's col- 
lection is shown a painting contributed by his friend 
and co-worker, Mr. John Ward Dunsmore, which 
reconstructs very interestingly the British Camp 
(about 1780) behind the Dyckman house. We have 
already mentioned Mr. Edmund D. Randolph's gift of 
the century-old boxwood which came from his place, 
"Brookside," at Mount Saint Vincent. We should 
now mention our indebtedness to the Misses Cruger, 
of Crugers, who are the descendants of Mr. States 
Morris Dyckman, for it is thanks to their cordial 
co-operation that we are able to show many impor- 
tant objects which belonged to their side of the 
family. With these Dyckman relics they presented 
us an ancient trunk filled with correspondence and 

45 



46 THE DYCKMAN HOUSE 

bills of Mr. Dyckman, including about one thousand 
letters and documents covering the period from 1774 
to 1806, which we hope some day to edit and publish. 
We gratefully acknowledge the gift from Mr. and 
Mrs. Frederick Allien of the rare eighteenth-century 
Dutch tiles, quite similar to those found in frag- 
ments in the Revolutionary huts, which has enabled 
us to restore very interestingly the dining-room 
fireplace. 

For various objects exhibited we are indebted to 
many donors and lenders, including Mrs. Robert 
W. de Forest, Mr. William H. White, Dr. Henry C. 
Mercer, Mrs. Sarah S. Frishmuth, Mr. and Mrs. C. 
Otto von Kienbusch, Mr. George M. Edsall, Mr. 
Jacob A. Smith, Mr. Robert R. Perkins, Miss 
Elizabeth Stratford, Captain and Mrs. William 
Bingham, Mrs. Arthur V. Youmans, Prof, and Mrs. 
Charles P. Warren, Mrs. Dwight Franklin, Mr. 
John Harden, Jr., the Misses Mary and Elizabeth 
Drennan, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick A. de 
Peyster. The excellent dining-room chairs belonged 
to the father of Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, of tele- 
graph fame, and come to us through the heirs of 
the late G. Livingston Morse, whose family has for 
generations been friends of the Dyckmans. We re- 
cord, also, generous loans and donations from various 
members of the family and its connections, especially 
from Mrs. Mary G. Waters, Mr. James H. B. Brown, 
Miss Carrie J. Fulton, Miss Mary E. Fulton, Miss 
Cora S. Requa, Mr. Rufus King, Rev. Henry M. 
Dyckman, the Misses Helen and Isabel Dyckman, 
Mrs. J. C. Courter, Miss Alberta M. Welch, Mr. and 
Mrs. William Dean, Miss Harriet Martine Dean and 



PARK AND MUSEUM 47 

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gaudinier Dean. To Miss 
Dorothy Dean we are indebted for generous help 
in arranging the collection. 

Our acknowledgments would be seriously incom- 
plete if we failed to record the kind co-operation of 
Miss Clarisse H. Livingston and of Mr. J. Romaine 
Brown, who exchanged lots with the donors in order 
to enable them to extend the Broadway frontage of 
the Dyckman Park. We note, finally, the generous 
help in many directions of Mr. John H. Judge, 
former owner of the property, to whose antiquarian 
interest, and that of his late wife, Winifred E. Judge, 
the preservation of the old house was long due. 

Bashford Dean, 

Alexander McMillan Welch, 

Honorary Curators. 




PORTRAITS OF MR. AND MRS. ISAAC M. DYCKMAN, IN WHOSE 

MEMORY THE DYCKMAN HOUSE PARK AND MUSEUM 

IS RESTORED AND PRESENTED TO THE CITY 




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